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Tiresias: The Ancient Mediterranean Religions Source Database



7288
Justin, Second Apology, 9


nanAnd that no one may say what is said by those who are deemed philosophers, that our assertions that the wicked are punished in eternal fire are big words and bugbears, and that we wish men to live virtuously through fear, and not because such a life is good and pleasant; I will briefly reply to this, that if this be not so, God does not exist; or, if He exists, He cares not for men, and neither virtue nor vice is anything, and, as we said before, lawgivers unjustly punish those who transgress good commandments. But since these are not unjust, and their Father teaches them by the word to do the same things as Himself, they who agree with them are not unjust. And if one object that the laws of men are diverse, and say that with some, one thing is considered good, another evil, while with others what seemed bad to the former is esteemed good, and what seemed good is esteemed bad, let him listen to what we say to this. We know that the wicked angels appointed laws conformable to their own wickedness, in which the men who are like them delight; and the right Reason, when He came, proved that not all opinions nor all doctrines are good, but that some are evil, while others are good. Wherefore, I will declare the same and similar things to such men as these, and, if need be, they shall be spoken of more at large. But at present I return to the subject.


Intertexts (texts cited often on the same page as the searched text):

4 results
1. Justin, First Apology, 14.3 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

2. Justin, Second Apology, 2.2, 11.2 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

11. But neither should we be put to death, nor would wicked men and devils be more powerful than we, were not death a debt due by every man that is born. Wherefore we give thanks when we pay this debt. And we judge it right and opportune to tell here, for the sake of Crescens and those who rave as he does, what is related by Xenophon. Hercules, says Xenophon, coming to a place where three ways met, found Virtue and Vice, who appeared to him in the form of women: Vice, in a luxurious dress, and with a seductive expression rendered blooming by such ornaments, and her eyes of a quickly melting tenderness, said to Hercules that if he would follow her, she would always enable him to pass his life in pleasure and adorned with the most graceful ornaments, such as were then upon her own person; and Virtue, who was of squalid look and dress, said, But if you obey me, you shall adorn yourself not with ornament nor beauty that passes away and perishes, but with everlasting and precious graces. And we are persuaded that every one who flees those things that seem to be good, and follows hard after what are reckoned difficult and strange, enters into blessedness. For Vice, when by imitation of what is incorruptible (for what is really incorruptible she neither has nor can produce) she has thrown around her own actions, as a disguise, the properties of virtue, and qualities which are really excellent, leads captive earthly-minded men, attaching to Virtue her own evil properties. But those who understood the excellences which belong to that which is real, are also uncorrupt in virtue. And this every sensible person ought to think both of Christians and of the athletes, and of those who did what the poets relate of the so-called gods, concluding as much from our contempt of death, even when it could be escaped.
3. Justin, Dialogue With Trypho, 2.2-2.6, 4.7, 7.1, 141.1 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

1. While I was going about one morning in the walks of the Xystus, a certain man [Trypho], with others in his company, met me. Trypho: Hail, O philosopher! And immediately after saying this, he turned round and walked along with me; his friends likewise followed him. Justin: What is there important? Trypho: I was instructed by Corinthus the Socratic in Argos, that I ought not to despise or treat with indifference those who array themselves in this dress but to show them all kindness, and to associate with them, as perhaps some advantage would spring from the intercourse either to some such man or to myself. It is good, moreover, for both, if either the one or the other be benefited. On this account, therefore, whenever I see any one in such costume, I gladly approach him, and now, for the same reason, have I willingly accosted you; and these accompany me, in the expectation of hearing for themselves something profitable from you. Justin: (In jest.) But who are you, most excellent man? Then he told me frankly both his name and his family. Trypho: Trypho, I am called; and I am a Hebrew of the circumcision, and having escaped from the war lately carried on there I am spending my days in Greece, and chiefly at Corinth. Justin: And in what would you be profited by philosophy so much as by your own lawgiver and the prophets? Trypho: Why not? Do not the philosophers turn every discourse on God? And do not questions continually arise to them about His unity and providence? Is not this truly the duty of philosophy, to investigate the Deity? Justin: Assuredly, so we too have believed. But the most have not taken thought of this whether there be one or more gods, and whether they have a regard for each one of us or no, as if this knowledge contributed nothing to our happiness; nay, they moreover attempt to persuade us that God takes care of the universe with its genera and species, but not of me and you, and each individually, since otherwise we would surely not need to pray to Him night and day. But it is not difficult to understand the upshot of this; for fearlessness and license in speaking result to such as maintain these opinions, doing and saying whatever they choose, neither dreading punishment nor hoping for any benefit from God. For how could they? They affirm that the same things shall always happen; and, further, that I and you shall again live in like manner, having become neither better men nor worse. But there are some others, who, having supposed the soul to be immortal and immaterial, believe that though they have committed evil they will not suffer punishment (for that which is immaterial is insensible), and that the soul, in consequence of its immortality, needs nothing from God. Trypho: (Smiling gently.) Tell us your opinion of these matters, and what idea you entertain respecting God, and what your philosophy is.
4. Tatian, Oration To The Greeks, 19 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)



Subjects of this text:

subject book bibliographic info
angelic descent, and anti-pagan polemics Reed, Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (2005) 172
angelic sin, as epistemological transgression Reed, Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (2005) 172
apocalyptic literature, and book of daniel Reed, Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (2005) 172
apocalyptic literature, history of scholarship on Reed, Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (2005) 172
apology, apologetics, christian Reed, Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (2005) 172
apology, of justin Malherbe et al., Light from the Gentiles: Hellenistic Philosophy and Early Christianity: Collected Essays of Abraham J (2014) 889
atheism, accusations against, christians Malherbe et al., Light from the Gentiles: Hellenistic Philosophy and Early Christianity: Collected Essays of Abraham J (2014) 889
celsus Malherbe et al., Light from the Gentiles: Hellenistic Philosophy and Early Christianity: Collected Essays of Abraham J (2014) 889
christ, and demons Reed, Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (2005) 172
christ, and fallen angels Reed, Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (2005) 172
christ, as logos Reed, Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (2005) 172
cosmology, in enochic literature Reed, Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (2005) 172
cosmos, cosmology, nature Lampe, Christians at Rome in the First Two Centuries: From Paul to Valentinus (2003) 425
creation Reed, Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (2005) 172
crescens Malherbe et al., Light from the Gentiles: Hellenistic Philosophy and Early Christianity: Collected Essays of Abraham J (2014) 889
creszens Lampe, Christians at Rome in the First Two Centuries: From Paul to Valentinus (2003) 275
cynics/cynicism Malherbe et al., Light from the Gentiles: Hellenistic Philosophy and Early Christianity: Collected Essays of Abraham J (2014) 889
death Malherbe et al., Light from the Gentiles: Hellenistic Philosophy and Early Christianity: Collected Essays of Abraham J (2014) 889
demonology, christian Reed, Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (2005) 172
demons, as enemies of christ Reed, Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (2005) 172
demons, pagan enslavement to Reed, Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (2005) 172
educated, erudite Lampe, Christians at Rome in the First Two Centuries: From Paul to Valentinus (2003) 275, 425
enoch, and revealed knowledge Reed, Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (2005) 172
enochic literary tradition, place of book of dreams in Reed, Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (2005) 172
ethics Lampe, Christians at Rome in the First Two Centuries: From Paul to Valentinus (2003) 275
fallen angels, as enemies of christ Reed, Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (2005) 172
fallen angels Reed, Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (2005) 172
genesis, and book of the watchers Reed, Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (2005) 172
greco-roman culture, christian polemics against Reed, Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (2005) 172
historiography, christian Reed, Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (2005) 172
impiety Malherbe et al., Light from the Gentiles: Hellenistic Philosophy and Early Christianity: Collected Essays of Abraham J (2014) 889
intermarriage Reed, Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (2005) 172
justin Lampe, Christians at Rome in the First Two Centuries: From Paul to Valentinus (2003) 275, 425
justin martyr Malherbe et al., Light from the Gentiles: Hellenistic Philosophy and Early Christianity: Collected Essays of Abraham J (2014) 889; Reed, Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (2005) 172
knowledge, revealed Reed, Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (2005) 172
literary production Reed, Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (2005) 172
logos, doctrine of Lampe, Christians at Rome in the First Two Centuries: From Paul to Valentinus (2003) 425
marcion Lampe, Christians at Rome in the First Two Centuries: From Paul to Valentinus (2003) 425
monism Lampe, Christians at Rome in the First Two Centuries: From Paul to Valentinus (2003) 425
moses, and greek philosophy Reed, Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (2005) 172
moses, christian redeployment of Reed, Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (2005) 172
moses Reed, Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (2005) 172
nigrinus Lampe, Christians at Rome in the First Two Centuries: From Paul to Valentinus (2003) 275
noah Reed, Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (2005) 172
peripatetics Lampe, Christians at Rome in the First Two Centuries: From Paul to Valentinus (2003) 425
persecution Reed, Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (2005) 172
philosopher Malherbe et al., Light from the Gentiles: Hellenistic Philosophy and Early Christianity: Collected Essays of Abraham J (2014) 889
philosophy, and christianity Reed, Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (2005) 172
philosophy Lampe, Christians at Rome in the First Two Centuries: From Paul to Valentinus (2003) 425
plato Reed, Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (2005) 172
platonism Lampe, Christians at Rome in the First Two Centuries: From Paul to Valentinus (2003) 275, 425
polytheism Reed, Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (2005) 172
porphyry Malherbe et al., Light from the Gentiles: Hellenistic Philosophy and Early Christianity: Collected Essays of Abraham J (2014) 889
rusticus Lampe, Christians at Rome in the First Two Centuries: From Paul to Valentinus (2003) 275
stoicism, stoics' Lampe, Christians at Rome in the First Two Centuries: From Paul to Valentinus (2003) 425
stoicism, stoics Lampe, Christians at Rome in the First Two Centuries: From Paul to Valentinus (2003) 275